Donald
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Donald is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 10th most common given name. Recorded meaning: From the Gaelic male personal name Domhnall, literally ‘world-mighty’.
- IEIreland≈1 in 240(inferred from the name graph)
- CNChina≈1 in 242
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 270
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #105 (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 630 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 240 (inferred from the name graph)
≈5,800,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From the Gaelic male personal name Domhnall, literally ‘world-mighty’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Donald counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈5,800,000 est. | ≈1 in 242 | — | Donald | 58 |
| US United States | #43 | 715,624 | 1 in 465 | 715K | Donald | 630 |
| GB United Kingdom | #72 | ≈190,000 est. | ≈1 in 341 | 6 | Donald | 308 |
| IT Italy | #96 | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 469 | — | Donald | 86 |
| EG Egypt | #390 | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 816 | — | Donald | 29 |
| CA Canada | #32 | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 298 | 4 | Donald | 306 |
| IE Ireland | #29 | ≈22,000 est. | ≈1 in 240 | — | Donald | 85 |
| SG Singapore | #10 | ≈20,000 est. | ≈1 in 308 | — | Donald | 83 |
| NZ New Zealand | #45 | ≈18,000 est. | ≈1 in 270 | — | Donald | 134 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Donald is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, From Gaelic Domhnall (earlier Domnall), from Celtic dubno ‘world ruler/overlord’. Surname first found at Kinross in 1328.
as a nameScottish Surnames
In English, from Gael Domhnall / OIr Domnall, PrCeltic *Dubno-valos ‘world-mighty’; first attested Haket Donald 1328 Black (Kinross)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In French, From Gaelic Dòmhnall, meaning “powerful people” or “ruler of the world”; Celtic origin.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, Scottish Gaelic Domhnall, from ‘world’ + ‘rule’
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Irish/Scottish Gaelic: ruler of the world.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Donald Ib. 812GBKing of the Picts from 858 to 862
- Donald Sutherlandb. 1935CACanadian actor (1935–2024)
- Don DeLillob. 1936USnot in their usual nameAmerican novelist, playwright and essayist (born 1936)
- Donald Knuthb. 1938USAmerican computer scientist and mathematician (born 1938)
- Kenny Rogersb. 1938USnot in their usual nameAmerican country singer (1938–2020)
- Präsident Donald Trumpb. 1946US45th and 47th President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)
- Tim Cookb. 1960USnot in their usual nameAmerican business executive, Apple CEO
- Don Cheadleb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1964)
- David Cameronb. 1966GBnot in their usual nameBritish politician (born 1966)
- JD Vanceb. 1984USnot in their usual nameVice President of the United States since 2025
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 124 sources across 68 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 715K | #48 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 768 | #48 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 395 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 22 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 1992 | 11 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 4 | #922 |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Donald a male or female name?
- Donald is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Donald mean, and where does it come from?
- From the Gaelic male personal name Domhnall, literally ‘world-mighty’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Donald?
- In the etymology graph, Donal, Domhnall and Dónal are forms of the same name in other languages; Don, Donnie and Donny are recorded short or pet forms.
- How common is the name Donald?
- In the United States, the national register counted 715,624 people named Donald in 2020, about 1 in 465 residents.
- How common is Donald compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Donald is the 10th most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- In which country does Donald have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 5.8 million people named Donald in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled donald.
What do you want to know about Donald?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/donaldThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Donald” — the 10th most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.